Just Pack Your Bag, But. . .

"Now you can fly to Paradise!" So Pan American World Airways burbled last week in ecstatic travel ads. Paradise, which Pan Am seemed to have confused with Hawaii, was still not a regularly scheduled stop on any airline. But by plane or boat, every country on earth was once more open to U.S. travelers, packing their bags for the biggest travel boom ever. Even Japanese ports were reopened. Fare by freighter: $225.

There was one huge hitch--nobody could go outside the Western Hemisphere just for fun. Many a country, notably Great Britain and Switzerland, wanted dollar-laden tourists. And Eire was still a little bit of tourist heaven. But food supplies were still too short everywhere, hotel and transportation facilities too cramped to accommodate a horde of tourists. People with "good and sufficient" reasons--businessmen going after business, students going to foreign schools, people who wanted to visit relatives--had little trouble getting passports for Europe, Asia, Africa. The U.S. Department of State, swamped with 1,000 passport applications a day, was okaying 80% of them.

The Welcome Mat. By air, Paris was only $375 away. Gradually the big North Atlantic liners were coming back into passenger service. The 81,235-ton Queen Mary was still bringing G.I.s and war brides home. But every two weeks she was taking 400 to 500 passengers from New York to London for $212.50. In about seven months the Queen Elizabeth would be in regular North Atlantic service. By mid-summer the French Line hopes to have the Ile de France and DeGrasse running. Before long, the War Shipping Administration hopes to allocate more ships to the Mediterranean and South African runs, now serviced only by freighters.

Passage to the Orient was likewise impossible to get except on freighters, but the American President Lines hoped to start sending converted transports to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila in June. The Matson Navigation Co. planned to resume sailings to New Zealand and Australia as soon as its four "white ships" (the Matsonia, Monterey, Lurline and Mariposa) are returned and reconverted from troop carriers, probably by 1947.

See America First. But this year the Western Hemisphere will still be the easiest place to get to. Most ship lines now have thousands on their waiting lists. By fall, however, three liners of the Moore-McCormack "Good Neighbor" Fleet would be back on South American runs. And the Grace Line, which will launch the fifth of nine new 52-passenger "Santas" this week, would have regular runs to South America by fall.

Flying down to Rio, and everywhere in Latin America, was faster and more comfortable than ever. Mexico, prime goal of U.S. wartime travelers, was busier than ever--and higher priced than ever, like every place else. Bermuda was again only three hours from Manhattan by plane (round trip fare $126), or 72 hours by Furness Withey's 100-passenger ships (roundtrip fare: $80-200). The Monarch of Bermuda would not be sailing again till 1947.

Hawaii, as advertised, could indeed be reached by air. But The Islands, with an acute housing shortage, had few hotel rooms for trippers.

Canada was whistling a woodsy come-on. Hotels and camps at Jasper Park, New Brunswick, Banff and Lake Louise, closed for the most part during the war, are opening again. But already the hotels there, along with those at most U.S. resorts, were being swamped with summer reservations. Nevertheless, tourists would have less trouble and expense in the U.S. than outside it. For the next eight months at least, travel bureaus were reluctantly advising clients: "See America first."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.